Well after much sleeping on it I’ve decided to use a combination of Maple and Wenge veneers for the greyhound piece.

Wenge and Maple wood veneers

Both these veneers are quite brittle to work with and will present some challenges as the piece develops. Maple veneer is prone to split at the edges and can cause real problems at the ‘gluing up’ stage. Wenge veneer is quite hard to cut cleanly so I will need to ensure my blade is sharp as sharp can be.

I’ll say some more about the characteristics of the veneers in my next post.

The next step in making a marquetry piece is choosing the wood veneers to use for your design.

In many ways this is the most important part of the whole process and is about selecting the best possible match of veneers to do justice to the design you have chosen. This includes considering all the different qualities of the woods such as the grain, figure, lustre, colour and cut.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that you are going to spend numerous hours working with the veneers you choose for you design which makes it all the more important that you get the right mix of woods from the start rather than get half way through the process and realise you are using the ‘wrong’ combination of woods.

Selecting the wood veneers for your design

My final advice about choosing which veneers to use – is to take your time. For that reason, I’m sleeping on my ideas about which to use for my greyhound design……..

I’ve decided to do a series of blogs showing each of the steps involved in making a marquetry piece all the way from choice of subject to the completed piece.

The first step is about choosing a pattern or design.

In my case I deliberately choose relatively simple designs using two or three contrasting veneers which emphasise the natural features of the wood rather than try emulate pictures such as you might find in a photograph or painting.

In this case my choice of subject is a silhouette of a Greyhound intended as a gift for Gloria, the lady that looks after my dog when I go abroad.

Having selected a design the next step is to transfer the design onto tracing paper.

Finally, after months of trying, I’ve figured out how to add my own images to the headers of my website pages!! I’ve chosen the ‘random option’ which shows different images in a random pattern on each page – well pleased with myself!!

Started making an inventory of tools and machinery I’ve acquired these last three years (better late than never, in all things). Amazed myself with the stuff I’ve got, shocked is probably a better word!

Have you ever had a day where everything seems to conspire against you? A day when you wake up full of good intentions and lots to do only to be thwarted at every turn by the fates? – Today was such a day

There’s something very more-ish about buying new supplies of wood veneer in the knowledge that in the coming months the raw wood will be transformed into exquisite Marquetry pieces. Thanks – The Wood Veneer Hub.